


Sleepless

by WolvenChimera



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: But you do you, Depression (implied), F/M, Im not even sure if it qualifies as unhealthy, OC centered, Odd Coping Mechanisms, Pre-Relationship, Sad, Trauma, post Nero, replicator abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:15:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27041848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolvenChimera/pseuds/WolvenChimera
Summary: After Nero a friend of Jim and Bones struggled with the casualties as they limp their way back to Earth. Bones finds her in the observation lounge.
Relationships: Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Sleepless

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first published(?) story so I do apologize for whatever errors there may be. This’ll probably be the beginning of a series involving this OC. 
> 
> Its not very heavy on the dialogue. So uh, lemme know what you think.

There were only two people that Hayley Parks had ever let close in all her 27 years. Jim, her best friend since childhood and Leonard McCoy, who had not only accepted that she and Jim Kirk were a package deal but had become one of her closest confidants.

But now she couldn’t be more alone. She was off shift from engineering, they’d kicked her out after non-stop work. “Even that stray Kirk brought has left, Parks” the others had told her. It had been made clear she probably shouldn’t use the labs in her condition... so thats how she found herself in a quiet, empty observation room methodically disassembling a replicator.

All the pieces were laid out before the engineer in neat rows. Vacuum tubes, nuts, bolts, steel plates. All of it was laid out ready for her to reassemble for what was, admittedly, the 23rd time that night.

The nightly ritual went like this, Hayley promised Len or Jim she’d try to get some sleep as they limped their way back to Earth at warp 4. A week’s trip from the blackhole they’d opened. She’d promise sleep and she’d try. She really would. But then the numbers came by and instead of sheep, Hayley counted bodies. Over 3000 cadets and more Vulcans than she could count. So she’d go to the Observation deck and enter observation room 4. The one that was always empty. And she’d disassemble and reassemble the replicator to her heart’s content.

Hayley worked deft fingers quickly and efficiently, the action not betraying how heavy they felt. Soon the replicator was in one functioning piece again.

Then the door opened. A large shadow cast into the dark room. Hayley stared on at the replicator, numb. “Hales... what’re you doin’ in here?” Came the soft southern drawl and Hayley crumbled. Goddammit she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t disassemble or reassemble that damn replicator anymore and she couldn’t sleep. So she let out a sob. The sobs came by the bucket, a cascade of 4 days worth of wreckage and fresh trauma. She didn’t even notice when Len sat next to her on the floor and began rubbing her back as she choked out her sobs. “3000 cadets and millions of innocents. Fuck, we could have stopped it.” A lie, both of them knew there was nothing to be done. They couldn’t have saved anyone unless they had known the future.

“There was nothin’ we could have done but try, darlin’.” Len told her as she buried herself into his chest. The prickle of tears was coming to greet the doctor’s eyes now too.

They sat like that for hours, in the dark. Using each other as the comforting presence they both needed. Hayley told Len about the cadets who she knew who were assigned to other ships. Len told her about the patients who’d come into medbay after the attack and never made it out. The fresh cadets who were excited to make a difference, the Vulcans who’d died of heartbreak and broken bonds. The people who had been in the biobeds next to each other and had talked their way through the end. 

In the end, they both fell asleep in Observation Room 4.


End file.
